David is a ham

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mothers Day, everyone! We want to say hi to our moms and grandmothers. Hope everyone has a wonderful day.

Unfortunately, there is a filter in place here that allows me to post but not to view our blog, so we can't read comments until we get home. Please please please keep posting them because we love to read them.

We had a really nice Mothers Day. We took a tour of the Chen family temple, which is now a museum for local art. We hung out at the hotel this afternoon. David refused to nap, at one point when I was trying to walk him around and get him drowsy he decided to put on a comedy show. He's really come out of his shell. He is constantly shouting and grinning, and he's started laughing in the last couple of days. He also fake sneezes for laughs. It's pretty hilarious.

The group had dinner at a Thai restaurant tonight. David enjoyed some steamed egg and soup with coconut milk.

Belts are almost as tasty as remote controls.

Hard to see here, but David is very fashionable for Mothers Day.
David with his friend Meeka (sp?). They're only 2 weeks apart and were at the same orphanage.
At the Guangdong provencial art museum
Enjoying an appetizer at the Thai restaurant

Better ingredients, better pizza

Very very slow connection today, so this will be short. We got up at 5:30am and flew to Guangzhou. David did great on his first plane ride. His ears didn't seem to bother him at all, just the fact that we wanted him to sit in a seat for 90 minutes. We met our new guide Veronica at the airport and took a 40 minute bus ride to the White Swan. It is by far the nicest hotel we've ever stayed in. There is beautiful Chinese artwork everywhere and a garden complete with waterfall in the hotel. After more than a week of Chinese food, we caved and ordered Papa John's for lunch. (Who knew there was a Papa John's in China?) David seemed to enjoy his first pizza. This afternoon we're going to take a walking tour of the area around the hotel with Veronica and then have a group dinner at Lucy's.

I received beautiful flowers for Mothers Day after we got to the hotel. Thanks, Mom and Dad!

More pictures and video to come if we can get a better connection...

Buses make David sleepy.
Hard to tell if the pizza or the remote was more delicious. (Note he had already removed the battery cover and batteries.)

Kevin and David in the lobby of the White Swan

More pictures

Since everyone had to wait a whole extra hour or two for yesterday's post. Here is a bonus for today...

Gotcha Day
Supermarket in Chongqing
Frogs about to have a very bad day
Kevin and David in the shopping district in Chongqing
The remote is delicious

Very proud of himself
Hanging out at the 2000 year old Buddhist temple

Look What I Can Do

Free Day

Today is our last full day in Chongqing. Our guide Sophie is going to pick up the kids' passports, but there is nothing else on the agenda for today. As proof that this is indeed a special trip, Kevin agreed to keep things low key today so that David can eat and nap on a semi-normal schedule.

David is eating more and more every day. I think as he feels more comfortable, his appetite is coming back. Last night we had dinner at a Sichuan restaurant, and Sophie ordered steamed egg for the kids. He ate half his body weight in egg and was pretty disappointed when it was all gone. (Roger and Kari, if either of you can figure out how to make steamed egg, we will be forever in your debt.) He hates fruit. If you manage to sneak a piece in his mouth, he shakes his head "no" pretty adamantly and tries to spit it out. He loves his veggies, egg, noodles and rice, probably not a big surprise.

Tomorrow it's off to Guangzhou, our final stop, where we'll get David's American visa.

He heard I was talking about his refusal to feed himself, so he decided to prove me wrong with some puffs today.
Duke class of 2029
Using toys as weapons
On a walk near the hotel

Little Emperor

The Chinese have a term for spoiled only sons under the one child policy. It is Little Emperor. I think we might have one on our hands. We are growing increasingly suspicious that David was a bit spoiled with his foster family. Though he has all the skills necessary to finger feed himself and has done it on a few desperate occasions, he would rather bend over and lick a Cheerio of our hand than pick it up and put it in his own mouth. Today he was in his stroller while we visited Ciqikou, he kept leaning out of his stroller, looking back at me, shouting "eh!" and sticking out his tongue when he wanted a snack. If I offered one for him to feed himself, he would throw it on the ground. We were also warned by one of the nannies at the orphanage that he is a hitter. She couldn't speak English, but it was pretty clear what she was trying to tell us when she pointed at David and started slapping everything in sight. He hits mostly when he is excited but has done it from time to time when he's not getting his way. He slapped the ground with both hands so hard when we were playing ball yesterday, that he accidentally whacked his head, too. Look for us on Supernanny in a couple of years.

Candied fruits at a shop in Ciqikou.

Kevin, who clearly does not share my fear of burns, lighting incense at a Buddhist temple in Ciqikou.

David loves to watch us throw the ball up in the air. Then when we hand it back to him, he looks up like he's trying to figure out how to do it himself. So cute.

There was minimal napping today due to our schedule. David crashed for about 20 minutes before dinner and was a beast at the restaurant.